“Then the Crozzo ability to mass-produce those ludicrous swords of his was…” Alicia began.
“I’m sure you can hazard a guess.” Welf’s shoulders drooped. “A by-product of the blood of our ancestor.”
Everyone’s questions melted away like cracking ice. Everything made sense. Those swords and their tremendous power, enough to set the very sea on fire, were made possible only thanks to the blessing of an ancient spirit.
This discovery, however, gave rise to even more questions. Why had Crozzo stopped producing his magic swords, for instance? But Welf was in no mood to explain further, replying to all questions with a disgruntled “Haven’t I told you enough already?”
Tiona, Tione, Alicia, and the others let out a set of awkward coughs, their faces red. It was true that they may have truly overstepped their boundaries.
—But that didn’t eliminate the fact that those with spirit blood could definitely exist.
—Was it possible that Aiz, too…?
While the girls didn’t voice such possibilities out loud, the question was plain in their furtive glances around the tent.
Aiz’s incredible wind power…Couldn’t that be just another by-product of spiritual blood? After all, she had been the first to identify the demi-spirit down on the fifty-ninth floor. And the fact that she’d felt it in her blood reinforced the theory.
If they were to truly continue with this hypothesis, the only question left was how, where, and when Aiz had inherited blood from a spirit.
The tent grew quiet, everyone falling deep into thought.
“You wouldn’t happen to know who Aiz’s parents are, would you, Aki…?” Tione asked, her voice low.
“Nope. I’d always kinda thought she was just some orphan dropped from the sky…”
“Miss Tiona, in that…legend…did it ever describe the spirit?” Lefiya this time.
“Mmmn…I’ve never seen the real thing. Both the version of Dungeon Oratoria I read as a kid and the one we have back at the manor are just handwritten copies, so who knows what kinda stuff got changed over the years…”
“There’s also the possibility that things were edited purposefully…” Alicia mused.
Then Narfi added her own two cents. “Hmm, once we start throwing out ideas, we’ll never stop.”
“Can I go already?” Welf asked, clearly fed up as the gaggle of girls around him talked quietly among themselves, completely ignoring him.
“Welfy,” Tsubaki started, gazing out across the group. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything else about the whole ‘spiritual connection’ thing, would ya? These girls are specially interested in a spirit named Aria who appeared in the old legend.”
“How the hell am I supposed to know? It was my great ancestor who had direct contact with that spirit, not me. All I know is what I’ve been told,” he replied sharply, as if trying to distance himself from his past.
“Hnnnnghh,” Tsubaki growled, thumping the back of his head impatiently as her chest jostled within its cloth binding. “Man, you’re seriously useless when something really matters! This is why I’m always telling you ‘It’s a decent weapon, but…’ or ‘This one’s a major disappointment’! Remember somethin’, goddammit!”
“What the hell is wrong with you? And what do my forging skills have to do with all this anyway?!” Welf spat back, red-faced. He was really angry now. Having suffered one exorbitant request after another and even his pride as a craftsman now wounded, he shoved Tsubaki’s hand away with an “I’m done here!”
Absolutely unwilling to stay there even a moment longer, he shouted at them once more.
“If it’s the legends you’re so interested in, don’t ask me! There’s someone else who knows a lot more about them than I do!”
“…U-um…why am I…here?”
It was the white-haired boy’s turn to be forcefully plopped in the middle of the women-only tent. He sat on his knees, sweat exuding from his every pore as Lefiya’s glare of hatred seared his whole body.
“Ho-ho-ho. Bell Cranell. Welfy’s done sold you out! You’d best prepare yourself.” Tsubaki laughed nefariously, looking more and more like some kind of evil magistrate.
“S-sold out…?!” Bell gulped.
He’d been summoned immediately after Welf had stormed out of the tent in a huff. The smith had been so anxious to remove himself from Tsubaki’s vicinity that he’d thought nothing of leading his own party member to the slaughter in his stead—something he may or may not have ended up regretting later.
Sitting there now as part of this Loki Familia emergency summons, surrounded entirely by beautiful women (at least one of whom seemed to want him dead), Bell looked very much like a scared little rabbit with nowhere to run. His face had already blanched a lighter shade of white as he fidgeted nervously in his spot.
“We’re not gonna bite, so you can calm down, okay? Consider this payment for the room and board, hm? Just answer a few questions for us, and then you can leave,” Tione explained, keeping her tone cordial and neighborly in an attempt to calm the fearful, shamefaced, despondent, jittery boy at the center of their circle.
Her smiling face was enough to ease the tension from Bell’s shoulders.
Meanwhile…“Eh-heh-heh…it’s Little Argonaut! It’s Little Argonaut!” Tiona was practically rocking back and forth atop her crossed legs as she eagerly eyed Bell. Her eyes glimmered with excitement at the prospect of playing with her new friend. “Hey, hey! I heard you really know a lot about the legends of heroes. Is it true?”
“I, uh…don’t really know if it’d be considered a lot, but I did read them often as a child.”
This only excited Tiona all the more, and she promptly began testing him.
“Then who’s the lady who Sir Garrard saves, huh?”
“Queen Altis…”
“Then, then, where did Giorgio the Dragon Slayer kill the dragon?”
“Lake Sirena…”
“Then, then, then, what weapon did he use to kill it?”
“A spear-like holy sword…and a maiden’s ribbon.”
“Awesome!!” Tiona cried out buoyantly when Bell answered every question correctly.
Her face flushed with excitement, she leaned forward in visible anticipation. “Right, then, Little Argonaut! The story of Arcadia—”
“Ahh, put a cork in it already! We have more important things to talk about!” Tione cut in before her sister could steer things any further off track.
Tiona grumbled with a little pout as Aki and Alicia chuckled to themselves at the fairy-tale-loving Amazon’s antics.
“Getting back to the topic at hand, do you know anything about a spirit called Aria?” Tione asked, moving right along.
“You mean the great spirit of the Dungeon Oratoria? The one closely connected to the life of Albert the Great? That Aria?”
“Yeah, yeah! That one!” Tiona replied happily.
As the legend was one of the world’s most well-known fairy tales, its basic details were known to just about everyone—the name of the hero, Albert, for instance—but the sheer depth of Bell’s knowledge was enough to impress even Tsubaki, Narfi, and the others. Only Lefiya refused to let herself be awed by the boy’s expertise, finding it altogether quite insolent of him to think he could answer the questions so readily.
There were a fair amount of discrepancies in the stories and legends passed down among the different races, mostly as there was a tendency to put one’s own race’s heroes on a pedestal. A hero in the dwarven legends, for instance, was nothing but a stubborn, bigoted coward in the holy book of the elves. And in Amazonian stories, it was one of their own warriors who slayed the legendary beast, while the beastmen claimed no, it was one of their thieves. Needless to say, opinions varied greatly.
Information on the legends ran rampant with bias, and there were few experts on the subject to begin with. The “official” origin stories recognized by the gods were neither read nor acknowledged, as the races much preferred to believe in s
tories reflecting their own pride and dignity.
Dungeon Oratoria was merely one of these god-sanctioned legends.
It was a massive epic spread across multiple volumes, some of which had been lost to the sands of time, making those who’d managed to read it in its entirety few, indeed.
“Okay, what about the story where Aria cuts herself in order to share her blood with someone…?” Tiona asked somewhat nervously.
“Hmm…” For the first time, Bell appeared to struggle. He brought his hands to his head, brows furrowed in intense thought. “I don’t think I’ve ever read that one, no…”
“All right, how about Aria protecting an injured human? And that human going on to have descendants of their own?” Tione followed up in rapid succession.
“I-I feel like it may have been there, but I don’t remember it specifically being mentioned…” Bell responded hesitantly. The eccentricity of the questions and lack of answers in his own memory seemed to be throwing him for a loop.
A sense of gloom settled over the group. They appeared to have hit a brick wall.
“Although…” The boy raised his head as though just remembering something. “I’m not sure about ‘descendants,’ per se, but…Albert the Great did supposedly have a child.”
“What?!” Tiona burst out. “I’ve never heard anything about this!” Her eyes grew as round as saucers. “Did you read the original version? The very first one from a thousand years ago?”
“Erm, well…no, but…it was more like…something my grandpa drew.”
Tiona blinked incredulously.
Even Tione and the others were taken aback.
“Did your grandfather…write picture books?” Tiona’s eyes narrowed in scrutiny.
“Ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha…erm, well, how should I put it?” Bell’s face twitched as he let out an awkward laugh.
If anything, what his grandfather told him was probably more of a dramatization of the story to appeal to children, not something they could actually rely upon. That was what the majority of the tent quickly thought to themselves, their concentration already waning.
Tiona, however, remained intensely focused on the conversation. “What happened to the kid, then? I remember at the end of Albert’s story…”
“Yeah, he got involved in that battle…then just disappeared.”
The interrogation on the tent floor continued as the two faced each other, the boy kneeling and Tiona sitting cross-legged.
“By the way, who were the women in his party again?” Tiona continued. “I mean, if he had a kid…”
“There was, uh…the Amazonian empress Ivelda and…the high elf queen, Celdia.”
The moment the high elf’s name passed from his lips, every elf in the tent was on her feet.
“—And just what the hell are you implying here?! Lady Celdia is an eternal saint! Devoid of impurities! The pride of our people, who left her own home on a quest to save the world! It’s unthinkable that she would ever have a child with someone of another race!!” Alicia began.
“All our nobles are descended from Lady Celdia’s younger sister Lady Rishena! Including our very own Lady Riveria!” Lefiya continued.
Bell’s shoulders jumped; even Tiona and the others were startled by the outburst from the two red-faced elves.
“We already have our own bumbling stooges calling themselves ‘royalty’ and spreading rumors about some ‘orphan’ of Lady Celdia’s starting their own sect or what have you…and now you’re saying we should believe them?!”
“A violation of majesty!” Even Lefiya found herself overcome with rage this time. The holy book that had graced every elf village without fail and the high elf she so revered were now under direct attack.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sooooooooooorry!!” Bell wailed tearfully as the two beautiful, seething elves closed in on him.
“Alicia! Lefiya! Calm down!” Tiona shouted as she and the others attempted to intervene.
From outside the tent, onlookers cocked their heads in curiosity at the commotion disturbing the tranquil camp.
“While this has certainly been insightful…we’re not really any closer to the heart of the matter—what any of this has to do with Aiz.”
It was a short while later.
Tione and the others had set Bell free, the girls once again in their circle in the middle of the tent and hunched over in thought.
Why was it that Aiz found herself a target of both the creatures and demi-spirits? As the circle hmmed and racked their brains, Lefiya couldn’t help but feel a twinge of melancholy at the fact that her beloved Aiz hadn’t felt it necessary to let them in on her secret.
“—You all really shouldn’t be prying like this.”
A sudden voice called from the tent’s entrance.
The flap of cloth was pushed aside, and a new face joined them.
“L-Lady Riveria!”
“Wh-why are you here?!”
Lefiya and Tione were startled.
“As if no one would notice the giant commotion you all were making.” Riveria’s long jade-colored hair swayed as she let out a sigh. The noise inside the tent had reached such a fevered pitch, in fact, that Finn and the others in the main tent had sent her to check things out.
As the discerning eye of the high elf passed over each of them, Alicia and Lefiya instinctively shrank back.
Only Tsubaki seemed unfazed by the elf’s appearance. “It’s fine, ain’t it? We were just havin’ a little talk,” she asserted with a shrug.
“…You know, Riveria. Don’t you think this secret of Aiz’s is something we should be aware of? I mean…we’re all in the same familia here,” Tiona said directly, her brows furrowed as she rose to her feet.
Riveria’s face was pensive as she replied, her eyes never leaving Tiona’s. “I won’t deny the fact that we as a familia are connected by a strong bond. Having said that, I’m sure there are also plenty of you who’ve not revealed your entire life’s story to the rest of the group.”
“!”
“How would you like being forced into revealing your secrets?”
Lefiya’s and Aki’s eyes widened in surprise as Tiona and Tione averted their gazes with simultaneous shudders.
“…I do understand how you feel. I really do.” Riveria closed her eyes.
“Right…”
“The fact that Aiz still cannot speak of it is a shortcoming on her part. And the fact that we, too, allow her to conceal it is something we take full responsibility for. I’m sure you feel we’re not acting in good faith…especially as all of you witnessed the events on the fifty-ninth floor.” Riveria opened her eyes, letting them travel across the group. “Though I cannot explain everything without Aiz herself present…” she said, “…I can say for certain that Aiz is, indeed, blessed with the blood of a spirit.”
“You’re sure you still can’t tell Tiona and the others?”
They were back in the main tent. Riveria had already vacated her seat.
The glow of magic-stone lanterns flickered like candlelight in the wide tent. The flap of the tent was securely closed, and Aiz let her gaze fall as if in response to Finn’s question.
“…I feel like…if I told them…it would only make me weaker.” Her words were slow and deliberate. “If I were to tell them…and accept their kindness…it would change me again…and I think I won’t be able to become stronger.”
“You think you’re being strong, but you’re not…” Finn whispered, though the words were inaudible to Aiz.
Instead, it was Gareth who spoke up next, sitting next to Finn as he addressed the girl bound by her all-encompassing desire. “I’m sure there’s more to it than that, lass. Go ahead. It’s only Finn ’n’ me here. Don’t keep it bottled up inside ye so.”
Aiz’s gaze fell.
At long length, the words began to spill from her lips, a little at a time.
“I’m…afraid…of how they’ll look at me…once they know.”
It was a rea
son easy enough for Finn and Gareth to understand, given that they’d watched over her, protected her since she’d been nothing more than a child.
She wasn’t the mystical Sword Princess who everyone made her out to be. No, the girl in front of them now—the lost, wandering little girl just trying to find her way—was the real Aiz Wallenstein. They knew this. So did Riveria.
Silence settled over the tent.
“…I think you’re makin’ a mountain out of a molehill,” Gareth said finally.
And as the old dwarf stroked his beard with a hearty grumble, Finn couldn’t help but chuckle under his breath.
“Aiz hasn’t been the same since that red-haired creature Levis appeared. I’m sure it was never something she wanted to discuss, nor the connection it had to her blood.”
Lefiya and the others were still in shock as they listened, their suspicions surrounding Aiz’s lineage now confirmed.
Riveria’s eyes turned glassy for a moment, as though she were staring at something far, far off, then she continued. “It was never Aiz’s intention to reveal her past, even with this turn of events.”
“…”
“Someday, however, that time will come…and until it does, I ask that you wait,” she finally finished, entreating the group the same way a mother would. “I also ask that…once you do know, you treat her no differently than you have in the past.”
It grew silent.
But only for a moment, because almost instantly, Tiona was walking forward, a broad smile on her face. “’Course!” she started. “I mean, we’re a familia, after all. Right, Riveria?” she added with a childlike laugh. “Aiz is just, well, Aiz!”
The words were enough to bring the rest of the tent to their feet in agreement.
“Indeed. Don’t you think we’re past this point by now?”
“A-as if I would ever, ever avoid Miss Aiz! Not in all of eternity!!”
Tione and Lefiya assured her respectively, though the red-faced Lefiya was the only one who did so with an undaunted sense of competition. The others in the tent—Aki, Alicia, Narfi—all responded, as well, with somewhat chagrined yet affirmative nods. Tsubaki looked out across the gaggle of girls with a contented smile on her face.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 5 Page 10
